keestha

And what does the employment department say in the province where you need to apply? That’s what really counts.

--

Maestro

YES.

You are so right, and I would be surprised if there would be anybody on this board disagreeing with you.

In my resort, I already had several people who entered Thailand through the border with Malaysia, who were surprised and dismayed they only received a 15 days stamp. They had to alter their travelling plans to fit in visa runs through Ranong, Chiang Rai/Mae Sai or wherever.

These people might not be "quality tourists", but most of them are young, and not everybody is born with a golden spoon in his mouth. If they like Thailand now, they might be coming back with their families in a few years time, and have real money to spend. Besides that (tired old refrain) they are leaving their money with local guesthouses and noodle shops, whilst much of the money shelled out by package tourists stays with British, German or Swedish tour operators, and possibly with foreign owned hotel chains.

Should take about 3 hours, it is 180 kilometer but the road is curving through the mountains. Take a Phuket bound bus which is going via Takua Pa/Khao Lak (not all of them do), or alternatively take a Takua Pa bound bus and change to a Phuket bound bus at Takua Pa busstation.

Have a nice stay in beautiful Khao Lak.

In just one generation, things can change tremendously. I am from the Netherlands, and my father was born in 1907, and my mother in 1910.

They told me that before the second world war, when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony:

- It was the general belief that in high school, Indonesians were not able to advance past the third class. University fully out of the question of course.

- People were careful not to get a suntan, because that could make others think you had Indonesian blood.

- Another thing: in Dutch university towns, when students were returning drunk from their clubs early in the morning, labourers took their hats off for them

- students slept with lower class girls, but went through elabourate courtship procedures with higher class girls they would eventually marry.

- Higher class Dutch families spoke French during the meals, because Dutch was supposed to be an uncivilized language.

On a more recent note, occasionally I am still entertaining people with stories about my experiences in South Africa, where I spent one month during the apartheid period.

Would imagine that OP has some major issues re. sexuality

Ijustwannateach, you are one of my favourite posters, but in this case you might make a completely wrong assumption.

Myself, at the age of 54 I am pretty sure I am fully at ease with my own sexuality. I am a heterosexual family man, but I did a lot of social mixing with gays and lesbians, and as a business owner I employed gays and lesbians at many occasions.

But still, in a gym with a vast gay majority, I maybe wouldn't feel so much at ease: guys jokingly pretending to flirt with me, and so on.

Ijustwannateach, would you as a male feel 100% comfortable in a gym completely populated by females?

Lao Po is fully correct with his warnings I think. Strange to what an extend people trust a guarantee just because it has been given by a government. Would you be able to sleep well if your $10 million deposit was fully guaranteed by the Somalian government?

I remember having seen several threads about a joint account being accepted or not. Use the search function.

I remember a Malaysian lady telling me that in Austria, a taxi driver aked her if in Malaysia they are living in tree houses.

She was not amused at all.

Impossible to determine even roughly the amount of money tourism injects into the economy. Small Thai controlled guesthouses/restaurants/souvenir shops etc. usually don't file a tax return, and nobody knows how many gold chains in the Bangkok store are bought by tourists.

Seperating Thai Baht being bought by tourists from Thai Baht bought for other purposes would also be a near impossible task.

Don't forget it is not only about money spent directly by tourists, it is also about money invested in building resorts for example.

, but to receive the work permit you must have a non-immigrant visa and a non-O visa is acceptable for this purpose.

--

Maestro

According to the law: yes.

But not all local immigration offices/labour departments might accept this. Last April I enquired at my friendly local immigration office if I could get an extension based on my having a Thai child. They know that I am working, and they told me: yes, you can get such an extension, but then you cannot work.

Would it be possible to get a work permit for somebody having this type of visa?

Does it get any better than this for those of us who live here? Happy days are here again. Though nothing can make up for all the pain suffered the last 5 years during the influx of foreigners and the trauma that comes with that, it looks like things are getting better and we just might be living in a South-east Asian country again instead of the little Sweden or Manchester that many parts of Thailand were becoming.

But please consider putting an extra lock on your door, because the economical slowdown which is partly due to the downturn trend in tourism, could lead to an increase in criminality. I wouldn't want your newly found happyness to be disturbed in any way.

Many rules seem to have changed......I am wondering if it would be possible to get a 7 days (or maybe 10 days) extension of a 15 day entry stamp, and if yes, would you have to show a plane ticket for that?

Tourist locations such as Phuket are going to be hard-hit. I did the rounds of Patong 4 days ago and again last night. 4 days ago I counted several bars which had already closed. Last night, the number of tourists was akin to a low-season evening. More bars had closed and in Soi Easy (about 20 bars) I counted just one solitary customer.

Maybe you say 'great if these cheap and cheerful bars close'. But that's one reason why many tourists come to Phuket. Take away the bustling Patong nightlife and the tourists won't come. Of course, Phuket also has it's 5-star tourists and resorts. I doubt that that sector will escape unscathed from these problems.

My (ex's) airport hotel is almost fully booked until 3rd January. After that, the bookings fall off a cliff. No-one is booking, even though it is peak season. Usually if people do not book at our transit hotel, it means that they are not booking their 1 or 2-week holidays at the beach resort hotels.

It's akin to Rome burning whilst Nero plays his violin, except that Rome is Phuket, Samui, Bangkok and Pattaya and Nero are the combined idiots of PAD, the weak government, the army, the airport authorities, the police and anyone else that you care to name who has only had their own interests at heart.

Simon

Similar situation in Khao Lak. After about November 7, the number of tourists dropped sharply. My resort only has about 60% occupancy now. There are very few tourists in the only real supermarket Khao Lak has, and a friend of mine remarked that at the beach there are more massage ladies than tourists.

Part of this might be due to the Christmas gap effect: tourists who want to celebrate Christmas&New Year at home have left already, and those who intend to celebrate it here, haven't arrived yet. This effect is very well known among tourism industry workers.

But surely the global financial crisis and political turmoil in Thailand are also taking their toll.

I am a long time Khao Lak resident, and I knew Fred. Mostly we met in or in front of the local supermarket, and he always had tales of woe to tell, about people taking advantage of his trust. I never knew he had been active on this board.

May he rest in peace,

Kees.

It always pisses me off when I go and eat somewhere else with my Thai wife, and I have to help her out ordering because the menu is only written in English. (Of course she graduated from a top university like most Thai ladies who are together with a member of this board, but something like " suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese" can be a bit difficult.)

That's a good one!

Why do we need to know that she graduated from a "top" university? That's irrellevant and information we don't need to know.

Which probably translates into the fact that she's a bargirl really.

Oh fishman,

That was more like an insider joke, which will be understood by the regular readers of this board. Note my words: " like most Thai ladies who are together with a member of this board". You see, so often posters proudly point out that they have an upper class wife or girlfriend.

Driving around in southern Phuket, I have seen places that make prefabricated transportable bungalows. They don't have the size the OP is looking for, but I would guess they could make anything you order, maybe assemble on the spot if it is too big to be transported (almost?) fully assembled.

Considering the price level in Phuket though, I would rather order somewhere else and have it brought to the island.

There have been heaps of threads about this.

They might refuse to let you open an account when you don't have a work permit. If this happens, just go from one bank to another, there will be one willing to open an account soon enough. It can even happen that in the same city, one branch office of the same bank refuses you, and another branch office accepts.

For a foreigner I think Katsikorn Bank is the best (they are networked very well with foreign banks), second best is Bangkok Bank. Both Katsikorn and Bangkok Bank have lots of branch offices and ATM's.

Bring your passport, and work permit if you have one. If there is a minimum deposit, it will be very low. For an ATM card you will be charged a few hundred Baht.

I once went to German restaurant in Pattaya where the menu was only in German. I didn't feel too welcome

Then I went to Japanese restaurant in Sri Racha where the menu was only in Japanese .Very difficult to order, but the food was excellent.

Have had similar experiences. Once I went to a restaurant in Phuket that only had a menu in Danish. Because I speak Dutch and German, which belong to the same language group as Danish, I could decipher most of the menu after some thinking.

On another occasion, I walked down the beach in Koh Samui early in the morning, looking for a cup of coffee. Settled down at the first place that looked like it was open, and ordered a coffee in Thai when the waiter came to take my order. The guy asked me in English what I wanted, but I kept speaking Thai to him, thinking: " arrogant a-hole, refusing to speak Thai with me". But soon it became clear to me that the place was run and staffed by Japanese people, who didn't even speak enough Thai to understand somebody ordering a cup of coffee.

For the last 15 years I have been running restaurants in Thailand, always in combination with a hotel. I always made it a point to have the menu in the restaurant also written in Thai, besides English and German.

It makes it easier for the staff, but also it makes it a lot easier and more pleasant for Thai customers, who are more often than not Thai ladies coming together with a farang.

It always pisses me off when I go and eat somewhere else with my Thai wife, and I have to help her out ordering because the menu is only written in English. (Of course she graduated from a top university like most Thai ladies who are together with a member of this board, but something like " suckling pig stuffed with bay leave-blueberry scented rocqueford cheese" can be a bit difficult.)

In your native country, how would you feel if in a restaurant they didn't bother to write the menu also in the national language?

The reason they do this (Charging Thais more than farangs, keestha) is because Thais only rent rooms, but usually ignore other hotel services which inflate the bills by quite a bit.

My experiences are different. Every now and than I have middle class Thais staying in my resort, usually they arrive by car, and they almost always eat in our restaurant, because they are" kreng jai "to go and eat somewhere else.

I must admit though, that when Thais reserve a room by telephone, I always enquire how many people are going to sleep in the room. If it is more than 2 adults, I raise the price accordingly.

Surely Australian officials will want to see proof that you are not married: Thai documents and an authorized translation.

Recently a friend sent me an old laptop, by regular mail, from the Netherlands. I think he put something like "toys" on the package. It arrived OK, and I didn't have to pay any import duties.

What I can say in general about mail delivery in Thailand, is that much depends on your friendly local postman, postwoman or postkatoey. Having lived at various locations in Thailand (city and countryside), I have had periods that the mail always came punctually, but also periods that I waited in vain for weeks for anything to arrive. If the postperson isn't too dilligent or has a workload which is too big, he/she might wait till there is a lot of stuff before making the trip to your front door.

Air Asia can be very easily booked online, pay with credit card. Prices vary greatly, depending on availability of seats.

Does anyone know of maybe a farang retiree with handyman skills wanting something to do now and then. I am based in Singapore and have a villa in cherngtalay which needs care and attention. Whenever we need anything doing I feel the costs are usually high and unless I am there the quality of the work varies from poor to disgraceful. I seem to spend a lot of my visiting time getting stressed over maintenance issues (which somewhat defeats the object of having the place !)

General upkeep, painting, staining wood, keeping me advised of things etc. someone i could trust and who would take some pride in the work and not rip me off !

Am I dreaming ?

Am I right in assuming that you will arrange a work permit for the "farang retiree with handyman skills"? A work permit is needed for whatever type of work.